Nuts in Fudge

This morning I am making fudge. 

I like chocolate but I love it with nuts. 

Pecans in fudge to be exact.

There are only a few nuts I do not like. Macadamia and Brazil I think are the only ones.

My mothers favorites were pecans growing up. She would buy them in the shell and we would sit watching old tv shows like

The Lone Ranger

Gun Smoke

The Ponderosa

Star Trek 

while cracking and eating them.

After I gave birth to my daughter I think I ate my weight in cashews. I do not know what the craving was all about but I had to keep them stocked. At that time it was the roasted salted ones from Planters.

Years later I wandered into an Asian store and discovered them raw. What a treat. They are softer and a little chewy all pale and unsalted raw. Now I can pick them up at Trader Joes.

A new addition to my loves is pistachios. For a while those were the go to healthy yummy snack. 

I know sadly some people have food allergies and nuts can be a huge trigger. This is sad especially when it can be the oils not even the nut meat that affects them and it means cross contamination when cooking and preparing is a very serious thing to avoid.

The most unusual of the nuts might be coconut. What other nut has it’s own not just moisture but full on cup of juice? My mother being from a tropical island I grew up eating them too. 

One afternoon before mom left town my adopted aunt was visiting with us while I was cracking open a coconut and extracting the juice. She was fascinated saying she had never seen that before in her life.

Yikes! It is amazing what we do not know when we do not know. 

I still do not exactly understand what commercial coconut milk is. 

If anyone has used it and then cracked open a coconut to enjoy the juice you will see the two are very different!

To crack a coconut I place the orb in two plastic grocery bags. Then my daughter or I will toss it down onto concrete usually. The purpose is to truly shatter the shell.

The larger the broken pieces the harder it can be to detach the inner meat. The curves will increase the suction holding the two parts together.

Fudge is simple but if you have never tried it:

Warm 3 cups of chocolate chips to melt them.

Add 1 can of sweetened condensed milk

Stir well and spread out on a cookie sheet to cool in the refrigerator 1-2 hours minimum.

That is a base or very basic recipe. 

  

I might add up to a half a cup of flour or whole wheat flour to thicken the mixture and final product. 

Today I used a recipe that called for 2 tablespoons of butter. 

A friend of mine adds crushed graham crackers.

I really like adding dark chocolate and or coffee flavoring and of course NUTS!